NIU VALLEY — Fire yesterday gutted the Niu Valley home of legendary Polynesian voyaging navigator Nainoa Thompson and his wife, television reporter Kathy Muneno.

Thompson declined a request for comment as he surveyed the damage to the single-story house near the entrance to his family's 5-acre compound at 440 Puamamane St., but friends said a lifetime of memorabilia was lost.

The cause of the 4:12 p.m. fire was under investigation yesterday evening. The fire was reported under control at 4:30 p.m., said Fire Department spokesman Capt. Earle Kealoha.

Kealoha said a woman was home at the time and escaped uninjured.

Fire officials estimated the damage at $300,000 to the house and $50,000 to its contents, Kealoha said.

Area residents Jennifer Holm, who lives on Halaki Street near the Thompsons, and Pacific Business News editor Jim Kelly were among those who witnessed the fire shortly after it started.

The smell of smoke attracted Holm's attention.

"It was burning black," Holm said. "I was worried it would get into the brush, it's so dry up there."

Kelly was pushing his 19-month-old son in a stroller on Puamamane Street when he first saw a whisper of smoke. "It got blacker and thicker and I saw the orange (flames)," he said. "You could hear the crackle and popping sounds. It really spread fast."

There are five structures — four of them houses — on the property. The fire was limited to the one home, although there is another home next to it.

The Fire Department received many calls about the fire, whose smoke could be seen from miles away rising from the back of the valley, where the Thompson property sits at the end of Puamamane Street.

According to city records, the property is owned by the Hawaiian Humane Society and leased to a partnership that includes Nainoa Thompson, president of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, and his late father, former Bishop Estate trustee Myron "Pinky" Thompson.

The compound contains the homes of several families related to the Thompsons, and has been host to gatherings of the Hui Nalu canoe club of Hawai'i Kai, of which the Thompsons are prominent members, and other groups.

Thompson is executive director of the Polynesian Voyaging Society. Since 1980, he has led trans-Pacific canoe voyages using traditional, noninstrument navigation. He also serves as vice chairman of the Kamehameha Schools board of trustees.